


Breaking the Seal

by homoose



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:41:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27971756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homoose/pseuds/homoose
Summary: Reader tries a menstrual cup for the first time and it… doesn’t go well. Spencer is a helpful bf.Warnings/Includes: v brief mention of past smut; discussion of menstruation and like, how vaginas work?a/n: I wrote this instead of doing the actual work I need to get done today bc I’m a garbage can. This may or may not be based on experience. I’m just really all about this type of comfort and vulnerability ya know what I mean?
Relationships: Spencer Reid & Reader, Spencer Reid & You, Spencer Reid/Reader, Spencer Reid/You
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50





	Breaking the Seal

She’s been in the bathroom for thirty minutes when Spencer finally has to knock.

“Baby?” he calls out. “Are you— is everything ok?” When he doesn’t get an immediate response, he starts to worry. “I just— I really have to pee.”

“Just— hang on one second,” she finally calls back. He waits another ten seconds, but there’s no movement on the other side of the door.

“Actually…” He can practically hear the gears turning in her head. “Oh my god, this is— can you come in?”

He carefully turns the knob of the door and pushes it open. Y/N is sitting on the toilet, looking decidedly panicked. He takes a step towards her and tries to keep his own alarm contained, hands up like he’s trying to calm a cornered animal. “Are you okay?”

“I can’t get it out,” she says, and now he’s really confused.

“What?”

“ _Ican’tgetitout_ ,” she repeats. “Oh my god, I can’t get it out.”

He drops to his knees in front of the toilet, goes to grab her hands before he thinks better of it. “You can’t get what out?”

She closes her eyes. “This is so embarrassing.” Her voice is thick and when she opens her eyes again, she can’t look at him. “I was trying to be a better person and save the planet, so I bought a menstrual cup, and Spencer, I— I. Can’t. Get. It. Out.”

“Oh.” _Oh_. “Um, did you try maybe like—”

“I’ve tried everything. I’ve tried pulling on the fucking tab thing, I’ve tried digging it out with my fingers, I’ve tried like seventeen different angles, and it’s just. Stuck.” She finally looks at him then and a tear spills over her lower lash line. “I’m sorry, this is so gross and dumb.”

“Hey.” He brings his hands up to cup her cheeks, swiping his thumb to catch the new tears. “This is not gross or dumb. Menstruation is a normal and necessary process. Human life quite literally would not exist without it. Frankly, your body is amazing for doing this every month.”

She sighs and pushes her cheek further into his hand. “I still need to get this stupid thing out. What if it gets lost up there?”

Spencer drops his hands and laughs. At her grimace, he continues, “Sorry— I’m not. I’m not laughing at you.” He brings his hands up and rubs his thumbs over her bare knees. “But it’s not going to get lost. I promise. That’s anatomically impossible. Hang on.” He stands and presses a kiss to her forehead.

He returns with his laptop, sitting criss cross on the floor in front of her. “Okay, google,” he says, typing slowly. “How to remove a menstrual cup.”

She laughs, bright and still a little wet. “I love you.”

He smiles up at her. “I love you and your dedication to the environment.”

He spends a couple minutes sifting through the results. “Okay, this article says that the cup creates a suction seal. That’s— that’s actually so cool,” he says. “I mean, of course that’s how it works, but it’s interesting to—”

“Spencer.” She looks at him a little desperately. “Can we fangirl about the mechanics of menstrual cups _after_ we dislodge this one?”

“Right.” He grimaces before continuing. “So because it creates this seal, you have to, well, break it.” He looks up at her from the floor. “Have you broken the seal?”

“No I can’t— I can’t get my fingers around it, like.” Her cheeks flush. “I think the cup I chose is too wide.”

“That’s very possible,” Spencer agrees. “It says here that you should choose your cup size based on the height of your cervix. Yours is pretty high, so the chart recommends a longer cup like the DivaCup or LilyCup.” She’s silent, and he looks up at her to see her grinning. “What?”

She raises her eyebrows. “You know my cervix height?”

“Well, I mean— I can fit two fingers inside you and just barely reach it.” He looks at her sheepishly. “So, yeah. Is that weird?”

“I have never been more glad that you know so much about my vagina,” she assures him. “All right, well what else does it say?”

Spencer sighs. “Nothing else about removal.” He clicks around a bit. “Oh, here’s a video. She seems nice.”

He presses play and turns the video towards her. The woman is, frankly, adorable— all Australian accent and pink lipstick and barrettes, and she is instantly comforted. “God, she does seem nice.” She leans forward as she listens to the woman explain the differences between cups. “Thank fuck for women on YouTube.”

They watch her for 15 minutes, and Y/N becomes more relaxed as the video goes on. The woman mentions that the pull tab is not _actually_ for pulling and Y/N laughs. She describes the opening of the cervix as being about as big as a pen tip, and Spencer gestures towards the laptop in agreement. “See? It won’t get lost.”

She doesn’t mention removal of the cup, but Spencer clicks on her Part 2 video and about two minutes in, they find the solution.

“You know how you can kind of control your pee stream?” the woman queries through the speakers. “So you can pee a little bit faster or you can pee a little bit slower. Um, and when you try to pee faster— this seems so weird to talk about, but whatever. We talk about all kinds of TMI stuff here. Um, but if you were trying to pee faster and push a little bit harder, you activate the kind of muscles that can actually push this down lower,” she says, holding up the cup on the video.

“Oh,” Y/N says. Spencer pauses the video. “Oh, okay. Let me—” She looks at him abashedly. “Can you keep playing the video?”

He presses play, and the woman continues talking, describing how to grab the bottom of the cup, how to pinch and twist. Spencer hears a soft squeak from behind him, and he turns to see Y/N with a look of shock, quickly melting into utter relief.

“Got it?” he asks.

“Got it,” she confirms with a huff. “Um. I’m just gonna—” She gestures to herself with her free hand, the other still tucked between her legs over the toilet.

“Oh— yeah, of course.” He stands and exits the bathroom, softly closing the door behind him.

She takes another five minutes in the bathroom, and then he hears the toilet flush, the sink running. She emerges from the bathroom and pads across the living room floor to where he’s stopped his pacing in front of the bookshelf.

His eyes move over her face. “All good?”

“All good.” She places her hands on his hips, and he runs his hands up her arms. “Thanks for the help.”

“Any time.” She rocks up and presses a kiss to his mouth, and he leans into it a little when she traces her tongue along his bottom lip. Her hands move around to his lower back, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss. He knows where this is going, and he’s more than happy to oblige— her libido is always higher than usual during her period. But then he’s pulling back from her mouth, shushing her needy whine.

“I really do have to pee.”

She laughs, and he grins sheepishly at her. “Well, do hurry back, doctor.” She releases him with a pat on the ass. “Because you and I have a date with the couch.”


End file.
